


catharsis

by inverse



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2013-08-19
Packaged: 2017-12-23 23:52:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/932567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inverse/pseuds/inverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>it's the last week of summer vacation. kise-centric gen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	catharsis

**Author's Note:**

> written for bps challenge 29, summer.

it’s the last week of summer vacation.

to be more precise, it’s two days right before summer vacation ends. any average middle school student would have been out on the streets, trying to savour the precious time left before school starts again for real. soak up the last remnants of the august heat before it disappeared for good. instead, you, kise ryouta, model extraordinaire and rising sports star, are stuck at home, trying to finish the rest of the summer homework assigned to you three months prior.

you had a good run. you spent your summer with so many girls, you spent it singing karaoke, going to barbeques hosted by people you don’t actually know, your sisters dragged you out shopping, you signed autographs, took photographs, went for your modelling gigs, as usual, and you won a championship. to be fair you don’t know how much the last bit excites you, or contributes towards your having had a fulfilling summer. it felt like something you should just have done or accomplished, by obligation, on autopilot. and in fact, no one else on the team was excited by the fact that your school clinched the championship for the third year in a row, except the third stringers you passed by after the whole thing was over, exclaiming, “that was amazing! maybe next year, it’ll be our turn to do this.” hardly anyone cheered during the award ceremony, you held onto the medal you were given because you had to, midorimacchi looked sour throughout, and aominecchi and kurokocchi both disappeared immediately afterwards. so much for victory.

that your summer had ended on such an unappetising note makes you feel a little regrettable. it should have felt different, like last year, when the sheer joy of having scaled that challenge with something that at least resembled a team defined the win for you. in fact, you not only played sports together as a team. you went for ice cream after practice, even though you had to bribe them to come along several times, and you attended summer festivals, this time of the year exactly one year ago. on hindsight, maybe you shouldn’t have hoped that anything would be different. you were only months fresh into playing basketball, and the newness of it all could have prompted you to think otherwise, but all your other attempts at playing any sports seriously have only led you back to boredom. why did you think that basketball would be any different?

still, you hope that when you go to bed tomorrow night, you’ll think in your sleep, “there’s something that i haven’t done yet,” and the world resets and you wake up to the first day of summer vacation and you get to do it all over again. this time, instead of waiting, maybe you would take the initiative, like you always did, to call somebody, anybody, to ask them if they wanted to hang out, to finish all that impossible summer homework together. but all that might be too much effort. you might just end up doing everything by yourself again.

your phone rings when you’re mulling over how to calculate the derivative of a particularly difficult-looking equation, designed specially by math teachers from hell to confuse and mystify. the name on the screen is momocchi’s.

“ki-chan? are you free right now?” she asks. “it’s dai-chan’s birthday tomorrow, and i’ve been so busy with the championship that i haven’t bought him a present yet.”

“i would call tetsu-kun, but i can’t reach him, and nobody’s seen him for the past week,” she continues, sounding upset, but then corrects herself hurriedly, “ah! but i don’t mean to say that i wouldn’t have called ki-chan, i was just wondering if i was bothering you …”

“i always have time for you, momocchi,” you tell her. it’s four in the afternoon, and you have plenty of time to kill, if it’s with a friend.

the two of you meet up downtown, and she brings some of her homework for you to copy, as thanks. “but don’t copy everything down to the last word, i’ll get into trouble!” she says. then you wander the streets, looking for a present that’s suitable for aominecchi, while trying not to talk about the championship or the club, or any of the ills that are bothering it and its members. it’s difficult, because aominecchi only really cares about basketball, and, most recently, gravure idols. momocchi half-succeeds, saying that she was going to bake him a cake all by herself, but when she gave it a second thought, she had better not, because no one had eaten what she’d cooked and told her that it wasn’t terrible. she gives you a self-deprecating smile, which leaves you wondering what the mood would have been like if kurokocchi were in your place right now instead. maybe it was for the better that she couldn’t find him.

momocchi ends up buying, predictably, some sports gear and training tees to go with aominecchi’s many pairs of shoes. “hopefully he’ll start to like playing again, if i get him new stuff,” she says while paying at the counter, looking pensive. at dinner she tells you that he’s been scouted by a few schools already, but he hasn’t shown interest in any of them yet. the rest of the team has also been offered places at schools which are known for sports. 

“i don’t want to think about this stuff yet,” you reply, poking at your salad, “i mean, i haven’t even finished all my work! and can you imagine all the preparation we have to go through for the entrance exam? just thinking about that gives me a headache.” truth be told, you’ve also already received calls from some scouts, some on scholarship. they all want you to play basketball for their school, and are offering you the place of a regular right off the bat. the thing is, you can’t decide yet, because you’re not sure things would become any different if you accepted any one of them from here on out. by now, these schools all look the same to you.

you spend one last hour with momocchi, just doing some shopping for yourselves. you pass by a jewellery store, when momocchi asks curiously, “ki-chan, have you ever thought of getting a piercing? you never know, it might look really cool on you! i’ve been seeing so many models who wear earrings nowadays.” 

“i don’t know,” you ponder, “but maybe i should give it a try?”

you approach the shop assistant, who is visibly starstruck. she tries to flirt with you as you enquire about the earrings, as if she doesn’t know that you’re only fifteen. in the end, you choose a beautiful silver hoop, while momocchi goes, “are you serious about this? i was only joking – these earrings are really expensive!” 

you smile at her reassuringly, like every good model should. after summer ends, in two days, you’ll start thinking about something new. life goes on, even if you’re bored, and until you find something else that makes it better, there are other things you still need to do. you’ll still need to attend school, exams are still on the horizon, your agent will still call you to tell you that you’ve been selected for photoshoots. you still need to decide where you want to go from here. and as for what other people are doing, well, you can only hope that things will work out. that really is none of your business, and there is nothing much you can do about it. 

you squeeze your eyes shut as the assistant dabs your ear with alcohol, then puts the gun to your earlobe. after this summer ends, you’ll become someone new.

**Author's Note:**

> obvious allusions to [endless eight](http://haruhi.wikia.com/wiki/Endless_Eight_\(story\)#Endless_Eight), from the suzumiya haruhi novels. kise has his ear pierced on [august 30](http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/601669885.jpg), one day before aomine’s birthday and quite conveniently towards the end of summer vacation. i believe the phrase used is somewhat like, “kise ryouta takes a shot of courage and pierces his ear.” feel free to correct me, i do not actually know any japanese.


End file.
